In the nineteenth century, epidemics reached, for the first time in history, all inhabited continents. Globally spreading pathogens were an unintended side effect of a growing flow of people, animals and goods across state borders, imperial spaces and continents. "Of pathogens and humans" is an ongoing research project that analyzes reactions to increasingly mobile diseases in the American and... More >

Need to write a grant proposal? This workshop is for you! You'll get a head start on defining your research question, developing a lit review and project plan, presenting your qualifications, and creating a realistic budget.

Professor Khalid Ben Srhir is by academic trade an expert on British-Moroccan relations. However, in Morocco he is known for his unique accomplishments in the fields of both translation and Jewish studies. Ben Srhir started his career as a primary teacher in Moroccos southern hinterland before he joined University Mohamed V as a Professor. Today, he is not only the editor of the oldest history... More >

In the winter and early spring of 1956, a series of articles appeared in nationally circulating publications, featuring an earnest entreaty: please do not laugh at those who are trying to learn putonghua, the common language of the socialist state. Beyond the headlines, permutations of the same refrain echoed in different forums. At the opening stages of a campaign to popularize the common... More >

The 1933 collaborative surrealist book The Exploits of the Five Cockerels Gang marks the end of the historical avant-gardes in Yugoslavia. Created by two prominent Belgrade Surrealists Aleksandar Vuco, who wrote the verses, and Dusan Matic, who authored the foreword, collages, as well as the explanations of the collagesThe Exploits is one of the examples of avant-garde... More >

Speaker/Performer: Alison Futrell,
Department of History, University of Arizona

Sponsor: San Francisco Society of the Archaeological Institute of America

Empire! Taxes! Violation! Massacre! In the early years of his reign, the emperor Nero briefly considered withdrawing the legions from the new province of Britannia. Before he could do so, the stability of empire was shaken by revolt, as Boudica, a tribal queen pushed beyond her limits by the excesses of the Roman colonizers, exacted a horrifying retribution, with deaths in the tens of thousands.... More >

Through an analysis of material culture and documentary data, my work examines the complex interplay between structural forms of oppression and agency by focusing on the ways sharecropping, tenant and landowning farmers in Texas utilized dress to negotiate racism, sexual exploitation, and exploitive capitalism.

What terms do we use to describe and evaluate art? How do we judge if art is good, and if it is for the social good? DeSouza investigates the terminology through which art is discussed, valued, and taught.

Need to write a grant proposal? This workshop is for you! You'll get a head start on defining your research question, developing a lit review and project plan, presenting your qualifications, and creating a realistic budget.

This talk takes mobility as its central theme and calls for a reconsideration of the automobile and its iconic role in American culture. How might the social and cultural meanings of travel and the car change once removed from their mythic place in Americana and placed in the context of African American life? The car and the ability to travel are emblematic of freedom and autonomy. What might... More >

There are obvious similarities between Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Recep Erdoğan, Jair Bolsonaro, Jarosław Kaczyński, Rodrigo Duterte, Donald Trump, and all the other politicians we have come to call populists. Not only is that label misleading, but analyzing them as part of a single ideological movement can lead to confusion. This presentation will use the example of Poland to... More >

Political dynasties exist in all democracies, but have been conspicuously prevalent in Japan, where over a third of legislators and two-thirds of cabinet ministers come from families with a history in parliament. In his new book, Dynasties and Democracy: The Inherited Incumbency Advantage in Japan, Daniel M. Smith introduces a comparative theory to explain the persistence of dynastic... More >

This talk examines the historical relationship between the Ljubljana School and the avant-garde. Beginning in 1967 with Slavoj Zizeks and Rastko Mocniks first forays into concrete poetry and concluding with the Schools involvement in the Neue Slowenische Kunst movement during the 1980s, the talk analyzes the Ljubljana School's engagement with avant-garde aesthetics, and ultimately... More >

Continuing economic convergence in Europes neighborhood requires further structural reforms. We will discuss the political economy of reforms in specific transition countries including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

Professor Hakim Adi will introduce his latest book, Pan-Africanism  A History, in which he provides a history of the individuals and organizations that have sought the unity of all those of African origin as the basis for advancement and liberation.

Need to write a grant proposal? This workshop is for you! You'll get a head start on defining your research question, developing a lit review and project plan, presenting your qualifications, and creating a realistic budget.

The talk begins with a tomb often known as Shoroon Bumbagar that was excavated in Bayannuur, Bulgan province, Mongolia, in 2011. Covered with murals but without an inscription or other information about its date, the tomb is studied alongside the better known tombs such as Pugu Yitus (d. 678), only five kms away, and tombs of Tang China and Sogdiana. Before drawing conclusions, the talk turns... More >

This paper chronicles the history of malaria elimination attempts in Zanzibar, taking a close look at the World Health Organizations failed elimination attempt between 1958-1968, and the epidemic of rebound malaria that struck the island afterwards.

The discussion will be based on Dr. Jones's new book, The Chosen Ones: Black Men and the Politics of Redemption, as centers around the topic of the struggles faced by formerly incarcerated black men trying to fit back into their communities and the obstacles they face when attempting to integrate into greater society.

Pirillo offers a new history of early modern diplomacy, centered on Italian religious refugees who left Italy in order to forge ties with English and northern European Protestants in the hope of inspiring an Italian Reformation.

Farm work is the most hazardous industry for young workers. Yet, despite the implementation of a national child labor ban in 1938, Latinx children continue to toil in fields nationwide with an estimated 200,000-500,000 agricultural child laborers employed each year. Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez has identified the child labor ban's agricultural exemption as the reason for this disjuncture.

Attendance restrictions: The Lewis-Latimer Room has a maximum capacity of 28 people. The doors will be shut and no more attendees may enter once the room is at capacity.

Speaker: Margaret Nelson,
Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Distinguished Sustainability Scholar in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability,
Arizona State University

In this talk, Nelson looks at rare climate challenges and human-created vulnerabilities in the long-term history/prehistory of seven areas and evaluates the magnitude of changes to food security and social conditions following extreme climate events. Results of these analyses support the role of human-created vulnerabilities in the occurrence of disasters associated with climate extremes.

For the past two years, the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, has convened a series of workshops and seminars concerning, broadly speaking, the place of theology in the university. From the outset, our goal was to challenge narrow conceptions of both secular learning and theology, in hopes of fostering robust conversation about the teaching of... More >

Ovoo, the structures of stones, trees, scarves, skulls, steering wheel covers, and a staggering array of other objects that are ubiquitous across the landscape of contemporary Mongolia, Buryatia, Inner Mongolia, and Qinghai, have long marked sites where ritual, though often highly spontaneous, practices invoke the presence of immanent relations. Built and maintained by various publics, gatherings... More >

For the past two years, the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, has convened a series of workshops and seminars concerning, broadly speaking, the place of theology in the university. From the outset, our goal was to challenge narrow conceptions of both secular learning and theology, in hopes of fostering robust conversation about the teaching of... More >

UCBHSSP invites Bay Area educators to participate in an "un-conference." This participate-driven event will allow teachers to share and learn from one another with regard to how they are approaching history instruction at this historical moment - What does this moment demand of us as history teachers?

Duncan Ryūken Williams (USC) will discuss his new book American Sutra about Buddhism and the WWII Japanese American internment. The fact that the vast majority of Japanese Americans were Buddhist was responsible for why nearly 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-third of whom were American citizens, were targeted for forcible removal from the Pacific coast states and incarcerated in... More >

In 1908, Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth (and chaplain to the 24th infantry regiment of the Buffalo Soldiers) founded the town of Allensworth, California. This talk will discuss the daily, lived experiences of both the civilian population and the enlisted military men who existed in these varying racialized landscapes and the archaeological material culture they have left behind.

Maggie Nelson, a 2016 MacArthur Fellow, is the author of numerous works of nonfiction and poetry, including The Argonauts, an autobiographical account that received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her Una's Lecture is titled "Songs of Care and Constraint."

Public University, Public Values is a new series of talks and conversations co-organized by BCSR and the Townsend Center for the Humanities. The series is prompted by the recognition that the current moment of crisis in the liberal democracies of Europe and North America is, among other things, a crisis of value. The political focus that has shaped the humanities and much of the social... More >

Talk by Sociologist Sadia Saeed on her new book that examines how the contentious relationship between Islam, nationalism, and rights of religious minorities has been debated and institutionalized in colonial India and Pakistan.

Speaker Bio
Sadia Saeed is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the... More >

The Exhibition of Socialist Countries, held in the Moscow Manege in 1958, was the first large exhibition ever organized in the socialist hemisphere, with more than two thousand artworks from twelve East-European and Asian countries. Conceived as a socialist response to the Venice Biennale - branded as the main international showcase for decadent and bourgeois art from capitalist nations - the... More >

Could it be that one of the most extraordinary experiments in international reconciliation and community-building in the history of mankind  European integration after World War II  has contributed to what European Commission President Juncker once dubbed galloping populism? Seeking an answer to this question, Dariusz Adamski will dissect the nature of the major economic policies of the... More >

Featured Speaker: Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez,
ASU Regents' Professor; Presidential Motorola Professor of Neighborhood Revitalization; Founding Director Emeritus, School of Transborder Studies; Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change; Emeritus Professor of Anthropology of the University,
University of Arizona

Spanish and English have fought a centuries-long battle for dominance in the Southwest North American Region, commonly known as the U.S.-Mexico transborder region. Covering the time period of 1540 to the present, the book provides a deep and broad understanding of the contradictory methods of establishing language supremacy and details the linguistic and cultural processes used by penetrating... More >

The Bible sometimes plays a major role in current, political discourses, especially in the United States. As a project, public theology supports efforts to let the Bible speak to contemporary, public concerns. But using the Bible in this way involves many potential traps. How can a 2000 year old book provide guidance for social and political challenges? Should it do so at all? This lecture argues... More >

Dr. Peter Cole discusses his highly anticipated book - Dockworker Power. Often missed in commentary on today's globalizing economy, workers in the worlds ports can harness their role, at a strategic choke point, to promote their labor rights and social justice causes. Cole brings such overlooked experiences to light in an eye-opening comparative study of Durban, South Africa, and the San... More >

Born a slave, the ancient Roman Stoic philosopher Epictetus taught that mental freedom is supreme, since it can liberate one anywhere, even in a prison. Long presents a new edition of Epictetuss famed handbook on Stoicism.

In his Lettres chinoises, indiennes et tartares, Voltaire republished a note by the good Kangxi Emperor to the Peking Jesuits as follows: The emperor is surprised to see you so stubborn in your ideas. Why would you worry so much about a world where you have not been yet? Enjoy the present. Your God must be pained by your preoccupations... More >

Two performers of unusual talents rehearse how they will delight and confound a group of earnest scholars. Intent on conjuring the colonial object of inquiry who refuses to cooperate and the privileged angst of the postcolonial, diasporic intellectual, the performers grappleliterallywith the gendered, raced, and sexual assumptions that construct knowledge. Multiple performance codes intersect... More >

The highly decorative works of Arthur Szyk contain key Jewish visual elements such as the Lion of Judah, the dove, and the seven spices mentioned in the bible as typical of the Land of Israel. These themes are repeated in Szyks oeuvre throughout his life and can be found in his early pieces ("Book of Esther," 1925) as well as in later ones ("Pathways Through the Bible," 1946). In this talk, we... More >

In December 1572 the Mughal emperor Akbar arrived in the port city of Khambayat. Having been raised in distant Kabul, Akbar had never in his thirty years been to the Ocean. Presumably anxious with the news about the Mughal military campaign in Gujarat, several Portuguese merchants in Khambayat rushed to Akbars presence. This encounter marked the beginning of a long, complex, and unequal... More >

Jan Assman is Professor Emeritus, Egyptology Institute, University of Heidelberg and the Department of History and Sociology, University of Konstanz. His English-language books include Moses the Egyptian (1997), The Search for God in Ancient Egypt (2002), Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (2006), and The Price of Monotheism... More >

The California Gold Rush is remembered for the thousands of immigrants who traversed continents and oceans for a chance to gain quick wealth. Lost in these narratives are the rich histories of Native American emigrants who made the same journey to Californias Gold Country beginning in 1849. Andrew Shaler considers the legacies of these Native emigrants.

Attendance restrictions: The Lewis-Latimer Room has a maximum capacity of 28 people. The doors will be shut and no more attendees may enter once the room is at capacity.

Ruth Marshall received her DPhil in Politics from Oxford University, and joined both the Department for the Study of Religion and Political Science in 2008, after having spent 8 years living and researching in West Africa. She is the author of Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria (U. Chicago Press, 2009) and numerous scholarly... More >

This event celebrates the publication of the "Handbook of East and Southeast Asian Archaeology" with two editors of this volume, both of whom are prominent scholars in the field of Asian archaeology: Prof. John W. Olsen (University of Arizona) and Prof. Peter V. Lape (University of Washington).

Both lauded as the great bank of the West and reviled as a huge financial octopus, the Bank of America introduced several modern banking practices during the Great Depression, which played an integral role in Californias development. Sarah Quincy will discuss her research on the impacts of this unusual bank on the states economy during the 1920s and 1930s.

Attendance restrictions: The Lewis-Latimer Room has a maximum capacity of 28 people. The doors will be shut and no more attendees may enter once the room is at capacity.

The first part of a double exhibition celebrating the tenth anniversary of the renewed Bancroft Library and its gallery, Facing West 1 presents a cavalcade of individuals who made, and continue to make, California and the American West. These camera portraits highlight the communities and peoples of Hubert Howe Bancrofts original collecting region, which extended from the Rockies to the Pacific... More >

Notions of resistance, alongside fears and realities of oppression, resound throughout Jewish history. As a minority, Jews express their political aspirations, ideals of heroism, and yearnings of retaliation and redemption in their rituals, art, and everyday life.

Centering on coins in The Magnes Collection, this exhibition explores how... More >

For nearly two decades, Yaakov (Jacob) Benor-Kalter (1897-1969) traversed the Old City of Jerusalem, documenting renowned historical monuments, ambiguous subjects in familiar alleyways, and scores of new Jews building a new homeland. Benor-Kalters photographs smoothly oscillate between two worlds, and two Holy Lands, with one lens.

Daphne Muse is a Bay Area writer, poet, and cultural broker. Her collection of more than 3700 handwritten and typed letters dating back to 1898 resounds with the voices of activists, writers, artists, actors, world leaders, and media innovators who shaped movements, created new artistic visions, and drove the intellectual, philosophical and cultural discourse for civil rights, human rights and... More >